


The 600-Year Itch

by Nemi_Almasy



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: (nothing more than...FEELINGS), F/M, Feelings, Rydros, Smut, Some Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-02-13 19:11:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12990651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemi_Almasy/pseuds/Nemi_Almasy
Summary: Sara Ryder hasn't had sex in 600 years. With the Tempest docked for repairs, she aims to rectify the problem with a little casual sex, but winds up feeling emotions she didn't plan for.





	1. Scratching an Itch

Sara Ryder had checked a lot of important events off of an ever expanding checklist she’d never asked for and would have preferred to undo. Crash landing on a wasteland that was supposed to be a golden world? Check. Nearly murdered in the worst case scenario of a first contact situation? Check. Watching her own father sacrifice himself to save her? Check. 

But at least some of the unexpected checklist had been successes; that counted for something, right? After all, she and her team had helped establish the first outpost in Andromeda, successfully interacted with the angara, even saved their moshae. 

All things considered, too much had happened, but a good deal had been accomplished in the few short months since Ryder had been thrust into her role as pathfinder. She and her team had deserved a break since Prodromos, to be frank, but ‘shore leave’ thus far had been quick trips to the Nexus to discuss plans with the leaders, get chewed out by Tann and Addison, then move on to the next mission. 

The others might have had time for a night out at the Vortex during those short reprieves, but Ryder never did. She barely even got time alone to herself on the ship, despite the expansive quarters she’d been afforded. There was so much work that went into being a pathfinder that she’d never dreamed of; nine times out of ten she fell asleep with a datapad in her lap in the meeting room.

As more and more time passed without a break, and with hardly any time to herself, one thing was becoming increasingly obvious to Ryder above all else.

It had been more than  _ six hundred years _ since she’d gotten laid. Hell of a dry spell.

_ That _ wasn’t an option without an extended stay on the Nexus either. Sex with her team, with the crew, it was too messy, though she knew that if no one else would be up for it, Peebee might. It was still too much to risk with  _ anyone _ on the Tempest, spending as much time in close quarters as they did. 

Ryder  _ knew _ the only option was finding someone on the Nexus, someone who wouldn’t leave her wanting, but wouldn’t expect anything to come from it. Her life was too hectic, too transient, for romantic entanglement, and if she was being honest with herself, she was too much of a hot mess for that anyway. Serious relationships could come when the worlds were settled, when she could actually afford to take a break for more than a day at a time.

The problem was, trips to the Nexus were too short to make time for even as little commitment as a one-night stand. The most action Ryder had time for was a few minutes with her hand on the rare occasion she had time to herself in the privacy of her own room. She didn’t even have something a little more  _ exciting _ to help her along; allotted supply space had been limited and the contents of each initiate’s footlockers were scanned prior to boarding the ark. Ryder may have been bold, but even she wasn’t crazy enough to try and sneak a vibrator onto the ark when she knew her  _ father _ would be informed of any identified contraband.

Worse yet, it was obvious that her teammates were not suffering from the same ordeal. On their last trip to the Nexus, several of them had gone to the Vortex while Ryder sat in leadership meetings, then returned to the Tempest to brag about their conquests.

It was when Ryder thought she had finally reached her limit, so desperate that it felt less like a base desire and more like an urgent  _ need _ ,  that Gil and Kallo informed her the Tempest would have to dock at the Nexus for at least a week to undergo routine maintenance. When Gil and Kallo agreed on anything, it was a sign to listen, and the prospect of an  _ entire week _ on the Nexus was akin to the heavens opening up and shining down on her.

She could see it in her mind’s eye, a chorus of angels descending with their harps, singing, “Ryder, it’s time to get laa-aid”.

So excited was she about the prospect of sex - in a new galaxy! After six hundred years! - that she spent half the trip back to the Nexus making a list of potential candidates like some sex-crazed lunatic. A stranger was fine, but if she was going to break a six hundred year dry spell, it was better to do it with someone she knew, who would at least care if she got off or not. There was no way in hell she was getting laid and  _ not _ having an orgasm. The way her schedule was going, it might be another six hundred years before she got the chance again.

List made and tucked away in her omni-tool, she prepared a bag for shore leave and darted off the ship practically before it landed, barely managing a rushed goodbye to her teammates as she sped past them.

As she left, she heard Kallo say, “Ryder must be really eager for a break.” Suvi only snorted in response.

Was she that obvious?

Well, it didn’t matter. She just needed one good lay and she could get her head back on straight. Otherwise, she might be relegated to the embarrassing task of asking Vetra to get her a vibrator through her ‘back channels’.

Best to avoid that situation as long as possible.

The Nexus was thriving when she departed the Tempest; angaran representatives had arrived since her last visit and seemed to be living well amongst the various races of the Milky Way. Ryder didn’t have much interest in stopping in to chat with them though; she had a week to get laid, and she would absolutely prefer if it happened multiple times within that week, so she needed to get a head start.

First on the list of potentials was the most unlikely, but the most convenient: Dr. Harry Carlyle. Ryder figured she needed to stop by and see her brother Scott first and foremost; she wouldn’t have forgiven herself if she spent a whole week on the Nexus without seeing him. It was just fortunate that Harry was overseeing Scott’s care.

Two birds, one stone, or something like that.

The tram ride back to the cryo bay on Ark Hyperion felt longer than the days-long trip to the Nexus; time seemed to be expanding specifically because Ryder needed it to pass more quickly. There were others on the tram with her, and they observed her quietly as she paced impatiently from one end to the other, staring at her watch as if that would somehow make the tram move faster.

Would Harry be up this? Ryder didn’t know him  _ that _ well, and he  _ was _ a lot older than her, but she found that somewhat appealing. She’d thought he was handsome the moment she’d met him, with a distinguished air accentuated by his salt and pepper hair and the deep timbre of his voice.

_ Oh, that voice _ . Yeah, he was definitely worth a shot, though he might have been the longest shot by far.

After quite possibly an entire century had passed, the tram pulled to a stop outside the cryo bay and Ryder barrelled off before anyone else could get to the door.

“Pathfinder sure is in a hurry.”

“Well, her brother’s in the med bay in a coma.”

Right. Scott.

She could just see her “sister of the year” plaque now. She really  _ was _ concerned about her brother and she  _ did _ want to see him, it was just harder to think about the sincerity of those sentiments when she was so distracted by other thoughts. Besides, Scott was stable and had been for several weeks.

Winding through the cryo bay to the med bay, she found Scott easily, still lying in the same bed, hooked up to the same machines. Harry was a more difficult find, though. Usually he was hovering around Scott’s bed monitoring his status, but he seemed to have wandered elsewhere. Wouldn’t it be Ryder’s luck if he was off duty today?

She shrugged it off for a moment and tried to focus on her brother. Taking a seat on the edge of his bed, she squeezed his hand and watched the slight movement of the muscles in his face. He could hear her, they knew that much, so she always tried to talk to him whenever she visited. She would never admit to anyone else how much she missed him. He always knew what to say when she was feeling overwhelmed.

He would have been a better pathfinder than she was.

For a moment, she forgot all about her shore leave task, instead starting up a one-sided conversation with her comatose brother.

“Hey Scott. I finally got some vacation time, so I came to see you. Looks like you’re still doing pretty good. I’m really sorry about last time...about everything. I shouldn’t have told you about dad and all that. It’s...I mean you knowing doesn’t help anything, does it?”

She kept hoping that one of these visits, his eyes would open and she would hear his voice respond.

“It’s been rough without you, little brother. I feel like such a fuckup half the time. I’m trying though. I don’t know what dad was thinking making me pathfinder, but…”

“Sara. Didn’t see you come in.”  _ God that voice! _

Ryder jumped at the sound of Harry’s voice and swiveled to find him approaching from the other side of the med bay. He looked a little more tired than she was used to seeing him, but still handsome in that rugged, dignified way. She felt her nerves fluttering in her stomach at the sight of him and just like that her mind was back on the task at hand.

“Harry, hey. I was just checking in on Scott.” She had a whole list of ridiculous pick up lines she’d been running through her head over and over since she’d found out about the shore leave and now she needed to build up the nerve to spit one of them out. She’d never been shy about sex, regardless of the potential partner, but she was feeling a bit more nervous now than she’d ever felt before.

“He’s doing well,” Harry said. “Stable. Lexi said the Tempest is docked her for the week. I hope you use some of that time to relax. _ Not _ that she’s been breaking any doctor-patient confidentiality, but I think Lexi’s a little worried you’re running yourself ragged.”

_ Lexi _ . Ryder didn’t even think about her, but now it seemed like a major wrench in the plan. She and Harry were close, but Ryder didn’t know exactly  _ how _ close, or if their relationship had ever crossed those lines. Maybe she was stepping on someone’s toes without realizing it.

Ah, hell, Harry would tell her if she was. Better rip off the bandaid and go for it.

“Oh, I was planning on relaxing...unwinding.” She attempted to adjust herself into a more ‘seductive’ pose, but even as she moved she knew it wasn’t nearly as sexy as she’d imagined. She cleared her throat. “I actually, uh, wanted to talk to you about that, Harry.”

“Oh?” He raised his eyebrows.

Mustering up her rapidly failing courage, Ryder rose to her feet and bridged the distance between herself and the doctor until she was uncomfortably close to him. “I was wondering if you had any...recommendations? For ways to relieve stress? I had a few ideas I thought I could run by you...if you wanted to come by my apartment.”

Oh God, what was she doing?

Harry’s laughter didn’t reassure her. He put a hand on her shoulder, but the touch was hardly electrifying. Gently, yet firmly, he pushed her back enough to provide himself some space.

“Sara, I’m, uh, flattered,” he coughed, “but I’m more than twice your age  _ and _ your brother is my patient. Besides that  _ your father _ picked me for this team. I’m sorry. You should consider looking elsewhere for your...er... _ stress relief _ .”

Her face grew unbearably warm then as she struggled to think of the words,  _ any words _ , for a reply, rather than gape at him with her mouth open. 

_Of course_ _he wasn’t going to be interested, Sara, you idiot!_

“No, I uh...I understand. I’m just...going...to...go…”

She rushed out of the med bay before Harry could say anything else, so overwhelmingly embarrassed by the doctor’s polite rejection that she couldn’t bear to face him any longer.

Well, knock that one off the list. She hadn’t organized the names in any particular order, just typed them as they came to her, but she wondered how many names she’d have to go through before she found someone who would _just_ _fuck her already_.

It shouldn’t be that hard, right? She was young, attractive, agile. Anyone should be lucky to sleep with her. Right?

She needed to keep telling herself that.

Next on the list was the reporter that had been hounding her every time she was on the Nexus: Keri T’Vessa. Ryder had been with a few asari in her day and they were usually good fun. It was hard to predict where Keri would be, so instead of running back and forth across the Nexus, Ryder shot her a quick e-mail.

“Keri. I’m on the Nexus and thought you might want to meet for a few drinks? Maybe snag an exclusive interview at my apartment? Let me know.”

There, that wasn’t too corny and it was to the point. Keri had flirted with her occasionally after interviews, surely she would be interested in the proposal. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, her reply came only minutes later.

“Ryder, I would  _ love _ to meet you for drinks, unfortunately, I’m on assignment reporting on Prodromos for the next week. Maybe next time you’re in town?”

_ Well fuck _ . There was Ryder’s most surefire option down the drain. Back to square one.

Hopping on the tram back to the docking bay, she took a seat and scanned the list of names again, trying to decide who was most appealing as well as who was most likely, now that Keri was no longer an option. Her list wasn’t discriminating, nearly every race was represented, and as she looked over the options, the idea of a turian grew more and more appealing.

Having grown up on the Citadel, Ryder was well acquainted with turians, in more ways than one. Some of the  _ best sex _ she’d ever had had been a one-night stand with a turian she’d met at Purgatory. Turians had the least puritan views on sex of any of the races, as far as Ryder was aware, which would be useful for her purposes. A turian could be a lot of fun, and they were in no short supply now that the ark had been found, though there were only a handful she knew by name.

Avitus was strictly off limits for a whole host of reasons, not least of all because she knew what he had been through. He was handsome, but understandably visibly unhappy nearly every time she interacted with him, and anyway, she got the distinct feeling she wasn’t his type in more ways than one.

There was Chief Lucan, though. She’d had a bit of a crush on him since she’d met the science team months earlier, though he didn’t seem to take much notice of her beyond that she was the pathfinder. She’d collected some rock samples for him on their last trip to Voeld, which would be as good a reason as any to approach him.

She found him in the tech lab, where he inevitably always was when she paid a visit to the Nexus. Unfortunately, Dr. Aridana and Professor Herik were also in the tech lab, which made it slightly more difficult to proposition the turian geologist for casual sex.

“Hey, pathfinder.” Lucan greeted her as she entered. “Long time, no see.”

She wandered over to the specimen table where Lucan stood hunched over a rock sample.

“Hey. I got some rocks for you.”

“Oh?” He perked up as she withdrew the bagged samples and handed them over. “These are great. Oh, you even labeled them. Perfect. Thanks, kid.”

_ Ugh _ . _ Kid!? _

“You know, uh, I’m not really a kid.” She fumbled to salvage the situation.

Lucan laughed and crossed the room to a locked cabinet where he kept his geological samples. Ryder observed the criss-crossing blue colony markings painted across his ivory facial plates; she’d always liked turian colony markings, though she knew the bare minimum about them. If she had to guess, Lucan was older, maybe Harry’s age, but she was bad at estimating those kinds of things with aliens. Signs of aging were different in turians, especially because their plates didn’t wrinkle or whiten with age.

“Yeah, how old are you, pathfinder? Twenty?” Lucan interrupted her thoughts.

“Twenty-two, thank you.” She folded her arms indignantly, but she had the feeling it only made her seem more immature.

“Like I said. A kid. In fact, I’ve got a kid older than you. She also insists she’s not a kid.”

Well, there was the nail in the coffin. It wasn’t even worth bringing up the proposition at that point. He had a kid, maybe he was married; either way it was clear he viewed her as a child rather than a potential sexual partner, so that was the end of that.

“Yeah, all right. I guess I’ll get going.” She sighed and waved her hand dismissively. “See you around, Lucan.”

“Bye, pathfinder.” He waved without looking up from his work.

Another name unceremoniously crossed off the list, Ryder returned to her options feeling more than a little hopeless. She had already suffered three strikes and it was  _ not _ doing her ego any favors. A turian was still appealing though, now that the idea was planted in her mind, but that left scant few options.

Kandros was the logical next step; he was friendly, sympathetic, and had listened to her vent more than once about her unexpected duties. He understood her, thrust unexpectedly into a position of authority just as she had been. Why hadn’t she considered approaching him from the start?

The answer was obvious, try as she might to push it down into her subconscious and never address it again.

She  _ liked _ Kandros. Of all of the people on the Nexus she’d been forced to deal with, he’d been one of the few she wanted to see each time she came back. He made meetings with Tann and Addison bearable, and he even cracked jokes on occasion, often at Tann’s expense.

Kandros had made the list, but she’d avoided his name because he was nearly as messy as fooling around with one of her team. What if it was awful? What if it was awkward? She looked forward to their visits, short though they always were. Was it worth ruining that for a little short-lived pleasure?

The image of Tiran Kandros stark naked flashed through Ryder’s brain and she realized her thirst far outweighed any rational thought. Six hundred years was a hell of a long drought, long enough that she could forget her concerns if it meant having her brains fucked out by a strong, handsome turian.

Like he wasn’t already having those needs fulfilled by someone else? Or multiple someones? Sure, he was busy as the leader of the Nexus militia, but he was also well-known, handsome, eligible.

Did he even like humans?

Ryder desperately wished she could turn off her brain as she hopped back on the tram and headed for operations. Kandros was nearly always stationed at militia headquarters, even if it was occasionally sprawled out in front of the security feed, asleep with his face on the keyboard. She hadn’t let him live  _ that one _ down.

It didn’t matter if he wasn’t available or he wasn’t interested; she had let herself think about the prospect for even one second and it was long enough that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she at least  _ tried _ . None of the other names on the list seemed remotely appealing now that she had submitted to the fact that she  _ really, desperately _ wanted Kandros.

As she expected, the turian in question was standing near the comm relay in militia headquarters, examining a map with strike team positions plotted out across the cluster. His brow plates were furrowed as he stared at the map, hunched over and holding most of his weight on his arms. He didn’t even notice Ryder as she approached.

“Well, order strike team five to Havarl, then,” he sighed. 

“Are you sure, director? We…” A turian voice sounded over the comm relay.

“Yes, I’m sure. The pathfinder’s sent multiple reports of Roekaar activity from that planet. They’re being underutilized on Voeld. Send them to Havarl.” He smashed his hand against a button on the screen and severed the connection. As he stood up and straightened out his back, he finally seemed to notice Ryder.

“Pathfinder.” He greeted her with a weary smile, mandibles flicking gently. She felt a little disgusted with herself for the way her heartbeat fluttered as his face softened when he looked at her.

_ Get a grip, Sara. _

“If you’re busy, I can…”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m free now. When did you get in?”

“Oh, maybe a couple hours ago? We’re on shore leave for the week while the Tempest undergoes maintenance. Thought I’d stop by and say hi.”

“Don’t let Tann see you. He’ll wrangle you into some meeting and you’ll never even know you were on shore leave.” Kandros laughed, his subvocals vibrating in harmony with the laughter. For a moment, Ryder couldn’t stop watching the movement of his tongue, visible through the side of his alien mouth. She was all too familiar with what a turian tongue could do.

“Kandros, uh...hm…” She struggled to come up with something to say to him to get the ball rolling the right direction. All of her previously formulated pickup lines seemed to have disappeared completely from her mind. “I was, um, wondering…”

“Uh oh.” Kandros groaned.

Was she already getting rejected this quickly? What the hell was happening? There was a time when she could walk into a bar and pick up almost anyone she set her sights on; now it seemed like the entire Nexus was actively avoiding her.

Had she picked up some odor on her last colony outing?

“Oh, look, if you’re not…”

Suddenly, Kandros’ hand was on her arm, gripping it firmly, and sending a little shiver down her spine. 

“Shouldn’t have mentioned Tann so soon. I think he spotted you. Come on, I don’t have the patience to deal with him right now. Better hurry before he catches us.” With that, he started running, hand still gripping her arm, tugging her along behind him. When her brain had caught up to the conversation, her legs started moving in time with his, though his gait was far longer than her own and she struggled to keep up.

They rushed down the hall, zipping past alarmed operations employees, while behind them, Tann hurried after them.

“Pathfinder! Ryder!  _ Sara! _ I’m talking to you! Slow down. Kandros, what is the meaning of this?” 

Ryder and Kandros rocketed into the tram, Kandros jamming the buttons for the tram to take them to the docking bay. Tann was gaining on them now that they had come to a halt, waving his arms and shouting, half of operations turning to stare at the commotion.

Like a gift from god, the door slammed shut right in Tann’s face and the tram barrelled along the track away from operations and toward the docking bay.

Ryder had fallen to the floor in the rush and now she lay panting and laughing. Kandros slid down next to her and, after a moment, began to laugh too.

“I haven’t done anything that rude since they made me head of the militia.” His mandibles quivered as he laughed. “Tann’s been up my ass for the past month. I couldn’t take another meeting with him and you don’t deserve that only two hours into your first shore leave in weeks.”

Ryder sat up. “Thanks, Kandros. I couldn’t have dealt with him.”

“Anytime, Ryder.”

He so rarely called her anything but pathfinder that the use of her surname surprised her. She turned to face him and he stared at her with an inscrutable expression, his bright beady eyes locking with hers. The desire to touch him was suddenly overwhelming, to trace her hands across his colony markings, along his mandibles.

“I haven’t had sex in six hundred years,” she said suddenly.

His brow plates shifted and his mandibles pinched against his face. “Excuse me?”

“I haven’t had sex since before cryo.” She repeated.

“Ryder.”

“Who has the time, you know?” She looked away from him and stared at her hands. “I’ve spent the last two hours darting back and forth across the Nexus trying to find  _ anyone _ who will just  _ fuck me _ . I just. Need. To get. Laid.”

To her surprise, Kandros burst out laughing. She felt so incredibly desperate that she failed to find the humor in the situation any longer.

“It’s not funny!” She smacked his arm.

“It’s...a little funny.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve got a whole smorgasbord here on the Nexus. I’ve got nothing on the Tempest!”

“Oh, I thought for sure you and Nyx…” Kandros was still chuckling.

“No way! It’s too complicated when you live in close quarters like that.”

A few seconds passed in silence, Kandros’ laughter finally tapering off.

“So...you were wandering the Nexus looking for someone to have sex with?” He asked.

“Yeah.” She folded her arms.

“And then you came to see me.”

She looked up at him and found the intensity of his gaze almost too strong to hold, but she did anyway. His eyes scanned her face and she was almost certain she saw something  _ else _ in the way he looked at her.

“Yes,” she said.

He looked away from her long enough to reach up and hit the emergency stop on the tram. The car shuddered to a halt in the dark center of the tunnel.

“I heard you were, uh, good at problem solving. That’s why you’re head of the militia right?” Ryder asked. “Maybe you could help me...solve...my problem?”

He snorted. “You can take it down a notch with the pickup lines, Ryder. That might be part of your problem.” Her cheeks flushed red and she jumped when he pressed a finger against the side of her face. “That’s cute.”

“I guess I’m out of practice. Usually my pickup lines work. I just...I…”

“You’re just overthinking it.” He slid away from her and began unbuckling his armor.

“What...uh, what are you doing?”

“Helping you with your problem.” He flicked a grin at her. “And let me say how flattered I am that you only came to me after your other options were exhausted. It’s always nice to be someone’s last choice.”

“No, it’s not like that.” She watched his hands moving to buckles and snaps he could probably have undone with his eyes closed. “It’s not that you were my last choice, Kandros, I just...I…” She what? ‘I like you’ seemed a little pathetic and pointless after she’d just propositioned him for sex in the least seductive way possible.

“It’s all right. You don’t have to explain.” He removed his chest piece and set it next to him, revealing the tight grey under armor beneath it.

“So what? That’s it? I tell you I want sex and you’re just going to give it to me? Right here on this tram?” She glanced up at the cameras in the corners of the car. 

“Well...yeah.” He shrugged. “I thought you told me you grew up on the Citadel. You’re telling me you don’t know how turians approach sex?”

“I know, but still…” She had been so desperate for it to work out, that she didn’t know what to do with herself now that Kandros was complying so readily. “I wasn’t sure if you even liked humans, or…”

“I spent a lot of time around humans in the Milky Way.” He shrugged. “I’ve been with a few of them. Listen, if you’re not sure about this.”

“No! No...I...it’s just...there are security cameras. And you’re already half undressed and we haven’t even really touched each other. It’s just been a while and I’m...anxious I guess.”

Kandros tapped on his omni-tool. “Don’t worry. I know head of Nexus security.” This made her laugh and did a good job of subduing at least a bit of her anxiety. He removed his gloves and stroked the side of her cheek. “You’re my friend, Ryder, one of the few people I can stand on this damn station. You’re an attractive human. If you want this, then I’m happy to oblige. I’m not exactly getting much stress relief myself, you know.”

“What?” She found herself leaning into his touch. “A handsome, eligible guy like you?”

“We both know duty gets in the way of pleasure far too often.”

Was this really happening? After failing repeatedly was she really going to break her six hundred-year dry spell with the one person she secretly wanted the most of anyone on the Nexus? 

What the hell, she may as well get things going or she was going to stay frozen there forever savoring the feeling of Kandros’ bare skin against her cheek more than she should have.

Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against the smooth, flexible plates of his mouth. One of his hands gripped her hip tightly while the other slid around the back of her neck as he reciprocated the kiss. 

Kissing a turian was substantially different from any other aliens Ryder had been with, but despite their stony appearance, Kandros’ plates radiated heat and she enjoyed that warmth against her lips. Kissing him didn’t just feel good, it felt like a long time coming.

She opened her mouth against his and gripped his shoulder as their tongues came together. His breath came heavy through his nose as the kiss grew rougher, greedier. It really had been too long for Ryder when just a little heavy kissing already had her heartbeat pulsing between her legs.

The kiss ended nearly as suddenly as it had started, but to Ryder’s relief, Kandros moved his mouth to her neck, nipping delicately at her skin while his tongue darted out to taste her. Turians, lacking lips, resorted to using their tongues a good deal more than any other race, but Ryder didn’t mind one bit.

Her pulse raced as one of his hands slid beneath her shirt and up her chest to squeeze one of her breasts beneath the fabric of her bra. She doubted her breasts did much for Kandros, but she appreciated that he was paying them any mind; not every turian she’d been with had been as thoughtful.

His thumb grazed against her upraised nipple and even with the fabric separating her flesh from his, it sent a jolt of electricity down her spine. His mouth reached her collarbone and then they both seemed to be aware of the suffocating amount of clothing separating the two of them because she reached for the edge of his under armor as he began pulling her shirt up.

As soon as their tops were removed they were touching each other once again, Kandros’ fingers tip-toeing up her sides and around her back to the hooks on her bra. Logically, Ryder knew it had only been a few months of her own experience since she’d actually had sex, but her body was absolutely responding as though it was aware of the six hundred years spent preserved in cryo without the touch of another. 

While Kandros was busy undoing her bra, she ran her fingers over the rough scales on his neck, down to the thick plating coating his chest and shoulders, tracing a hand against his prominent keel bone and ghosting a finger against the tiny gaps in his plating. This elicited a rumble from his subvocals that she enjoyed far more than she should have.

All at once, he slid the straps of her bra from her shoulders and yanked it off, tossing it across the tram car to land in a pile with his discarded armor. Wasting no time, his mouth was against her chest, his hot tongue rolling over her nipple, deftly avoiding catching her skin with his razor sharp teeth. He did, however, nip with the edge of his rough mouth, just hard enough to feel good without hurting.

“ _ Kandros, _ ” she gasped.

He kissed back up her chest, up her neck, to her ear where he nibbled gently at her earlobe. “ _ Sara _ .” 

Her name sounded so good on his tongue. She dragged her nails down the plating on the back of his neck and he growled in her ear, his talons digging into the soft flesh of her back where he held her.

Normally, Ryder was all about extensive foreplay, but she had been more or less ready to go before they even started kissing. Now that Kandros’ hands and mouth were roving over her body, she could barely stand it any longer. She reached for his pants and struggled to unfasten them. He laughed against her neck.

“Eager, Ryder?”

“I think we already established that, yeah.” She managed to get the buttons unfastened on his pants only for him to gently push her hands away. “What…?” She frowned.

He stood up and stepped out of his pants, revealing partially opened pelvic plates, but his cock was still very much within its sheath, to Ryder’s eternal disappointment.

“Stand up.” He directed.

She did so quickly, moving to unbutton her own pants. He grabbed her hands and placed them at her sides before tugging the pants quickly down her legs, tracing his rough hands along the length of her leg as she went, moving to kneel in front of her. She stepped out of the pants and he held her hips, pushing her onto the seat against the tram wall and hooking his talons in her underwear; she’d worn cute lacy panties in the hopes she would achieve her shore leave goal, but she wasn’t quite sure whether turians even appreciated lingerie.

Suddenly she realized she was completely naked in front of him and she felt self-conscious. Her body was harder than it had been before cryo. Constant battles with the kett, hazardous conditions on planets that were supposed to be golden worlds, run-ins with Roekaar: these had all left their share of scars and had built up her musculature considerably. Kandros didn’t seem to mind though, maybe even liked how hard her body was; she supposed turians were pretty hard themselves.

He traced his finger against her collarbone and down her chest, circling her belly button. His mandibles flicked into a smile.

“I don’t understand these, but I like them.”

“Belly buttons?” She laughed.

“Cute name.” He replaced his finger with his mouth and she let out a little gasp as he trailed his kisses across her pelvis to her thigh. His teeth grazed her skin, hands gripping her knees and pulling her legs apart, exposing her completely to him.

“Kandros…” Her breath came heavy.

“Call me Tiran. I’m about to put my head between your legs. I think we can use our first names.”

“ _ Oh _ .” Her eyelids fluttered. “Tiran…”

He rested his head on her thigh while his hand moved gently up and down the inside of the opposite thigh, fingers tracing over her muscles. 

“Yes?”

She wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say, and now that she was considering that long blue tongue of his between her legs, she didn’t particularly care if she remembered.

“Uh, go ahead.”

He laughed even as he pressed his lips against the inside of her thigh. She felt his subharmonics rumbling through his lips, vibrating against her skin. He moved his kisses further up her thigh, replacing his mouth with his tongue and dragging it suddenly between her folds. She let out a gasp and leaned forward to grasp his fringe as he buried his face between her legs, bringing a hand up to spread her lower lips apart.

It had been  _ too long _ since someone had gone down on her, and much too long since a turian had done so. The feeling was almost overwhelming as his tongue slid up and circled around her clit with surprising dexterity and precision; he had obviously done this before.

All she could think about was how amazing his tongue felt against her most sensitive parts, how much she loved the heat of his breath against her skin, how much she needed the release he was giving her.

“ _ Tiran _ ,” she moaned. “ _ God _ .”

His subvocals hummed as he applied more pressure with his tongue, flicking it once or twice directly against her clit; it sent a shock of pleasure through her body and she clawed at the back of his neck as more moans left her throat. 

One of his fingers slid inside of her and, without thinking, she clenched her muscles around it. He let out a pleased rumble and increased the speed and frequency of his movement, thrusting his finger in time with his tongue.

It was beginning to be too much. She could feel the pleasure mounting, her hands gripping desperately at any part of him they made contact with, toes curling, eyelids fluttering. She let out a moan each time his tongue slid over her clit, arched her back, rolled her hips to meet the pressure of his tongue.

The orgasm hit her hard and fast, pleasure washing over her body, exploding in a brilliant flash behind her eyes, her muscles pulsing erratically and of their own accord as she moaned his name, then wordless nothings, the moans devolving into gasps as she fell back against the seat covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

While she sat catching her breath, he sat back on his legs and observed her with a self-satisfied smile.

“I’ll take your silence as a good sign,” he said.

“You don’t know how long I’ve needed that.” 

But as good as it had felt, she didn’t feel satisfied. She wanted more; she wanted to feel him inside of her.

It seemed the noises she’d made had made an impression on him, because when she glanced down at him, she noticed that his erection had freed itself from its sheath, pulsing bright and blue between his legs.

She slid off of the seat to kneel in front of him, kissing him and bringing her hand between his legs. Turians were typically quite proportionate and Kandros was no exception; he was too big at the base to fully wrap her hand around, but self-lubricated, which would help considerably with his size. She pumped her hand up and down the length of him and he groaned, low and deep from within his chest.

They were well past the point of no return here, so she sure as hell hoped it wasn’t awkward after the fact, because she would have loved nothing more than to have Tiran Kandros’ tongue between her legs every day for the rest of her shore leave.

“ _ Sara _ ,” her name left his throat in a moan. 

When she let go of him, his subvocals buzzed and his eyes snapped open, brow plates shifting with a questioning look. She quickly allayed any concern he had by shifting to lean over the tram seat.

“Tiran,” she lowered her voice, “I  _ need _ you.”

He let out a low growl and moved behind her, gripping his cock and guiding it inside of her in one slow, fluid motion. A soft gasp left her throat and she clutched at the tram seat as he slid nearly all the way back out of her before slapping his hips against her ass and burying himself to the hilt again.

His movements were slow and purposeful at first, his talons digging into the flesh at her hip. She hadn’t realized just how much she had wanted this  _ with him _ until now. It was easy, in the moment, to pretend it was just a good lay - and it most definitely was  _ good _ \- but she knew it was more than that. 

Unbidden emotions were swelling in Ryder’s chest as Kandros leaned over her, pressing his keel bone flush against her back, nipping at her shoulder as he quickened the rhythmic thrusts of his hips. One hand circled around her hip between her legs to rub gently against her clit while the other slid along her arm where his fingers found hers and laced together.

He felt so good, filled her so completely with each slam of his pelvis against her. His pace was getting faster and faster, almost relentless as he drove into her, panting against her ear, moaning with dual tones, his finger moving erratically between her legs.

“Tiran... _ fuck _ .” 

Her breath was ragged, barely able to inhale before another snap of his hips drove the air out of her lungs. She was sweating, her skin red hot, growing raw where his sandpaper plating rubbed against her over and over, but it was all easy enough to ignore with the pleasure she felt short circuiting her brain.

“Sara, I’m…” His mandibles fluttered against her neck as he gasped for breath, his pace beginning to falter.

Their release was nearly simultaneous: one beautiful, perfect moment where the only thing Ryder could feel was an almost unbearable wave of pleasure pulsing through her body. She squeezed his hand where it curled around hers and let her body take control, his name escaping her mouth repeatedly in high-pitched moans. 

Kandros buried his face against her neck, dragging his tongue along her skin and moaning into her ear. With a few erratic final pumps, he spilled himself inside of her and fell still on top of her, both of them gasping for breath and awash in a glow of ecstasy.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke. His hand still clutched hers tightly and the other hand that had been between her legs slid slowly up and down her stomach, circling her belly button lazily.

In that post-coital bliss, the emotional element in the room was more apparent to Ryder than ever before. Did he feel it too? He was always friendly with her, but it didn’t mean he had any deeper feelings. Turians were pros at casual sex; why should she think this was anything else? 

Only because she wanted it to be.

She would have liked that moment to last forever, the warmth of Kandros’ body pressed against hers as he traced shapes in her skin, his subvocals humming softly. She realized it wasn’t just that she’d been in need of a good lay; she was touch starved and desperately needed that physical contact with someone else.

When Kandros finally peeled himself off of her, she almost sighed at his absence, but she knew the moment was over. After a quick cleanup, they both began pulling their clothes back on. He surprised her when he brushed his finger against her cheek, mandibles flicking into a smile.

“That was great,” he said.

She nodded, feeling tired and emotional. “Thanks for helping me with my...problem.”

They both laughed at that and Kandros turned to the display screen, tapping a few buttons until the tram kicked back into life. As they barreled down the tracks toward the docking bay, Ryder considered asking him to meet again; that had been the plan when she first started out on this quest after all, but as emotional as she felt already, she thought repeated rounds between the sheets with Kandros would only make things that much worse.

“What’ll you do for the rest of your shore leave?” He asked as they stepped off the tram.

“Avoid Tann. Try to relax...if that’s even possible.” She shrugged.

“I hope you’ll stop by. I always look forward to your visits.” He shifted from one hip to the other. She was surprised, but a little enamored, with how awkward he seemed now that they were fully dressed and off the tram.

“Of course I’ll stop by.” She pushed his shoulder playfully. “You’re the only thing that keeps me sane during administrator meetings.”

“That’s a pretty low bar with Tann and Addison,” he chuckled.

“I guess I’ll see you around, Kandros.”

“ _ Sara _ .” They locked eyes. “You can still call me Tiran.”

“ _ Tiran _ .” She nodded. She wished she didn’t like the sound of it so much.

Sara and Tiran.  _ Tiran and Sara _ .

And what? Playground rhymes about kissing in a tree? They’d fucked in a tram, that was all. Nothing romantic. Just friends helping each other out.

“Well, I’ll see you around.  _ Tiran. _ ”

They parted ways then, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened on the tram. And as satisfying as the sex had been, there was a new desire that had burrowed into its place. Refusing to acknowledge it any further, Ryder pushed it from her mind and headed for the Vortex.

She would just have to spend her shore leave drinking until she forgot her feelings entirely.


	2. Into Blue

A night out at the Vortex had  _ seemed _ like a good idea at the time. The way Ryder saw it, she hadn’t had a night out in a long time, and she  _ needed _ to repress any and all emotions pertaining to Tiran Kandros, so why not kill two birds with one stone?

It  _ had _ been fun, in the moment. The whole team had turned up over the course of the night, most of them egging her on -  _ especially _ Drack - while Jaal and Lexi were the only ones urging her to drink more water and stop taking shots with Peebee.

God how she wished she had listened to them.

Somehow, the night gotten away from her and she drank so much that she blacked out. The last thing she remembered was watching Peebee blast a turian across the room when he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer; whatever happened afterward was lost to her.

She awoke with a splitting headache, stomach turning, afraid to open her eyes to the light. The acrid smell of dried vomit immediately assaulted her nostrils and she let out a low groan; what had she been thinking? Wherever she was, it wasn’t her own bed: the familiar hum of the Tempest’s systems was absent.

_ Please, God, tell me I didn’t sleep with Peebee. _

She liked the spunky asari, and if anyone could have sex and move on without an emotional conversation, it was Peebee, but Ryder knew she’d never live down the experience with the rest of her crew, and she didn’t want the air on the ship to be awkward.

Hesitantly, with marked difficulty, she opened her eyes and blinked away the pain of the light blasting through her eyes and into her brain. She was in a small, tidy apartment on the Nexus overlooking the hydroponics station. But whose apartment was it? Too clean to belong to Peebee, that much was evident.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Ryder’s heart dropped into her stomach at the familiar dual-toned voice that issued from behind her. She spun around, the movement almost making her vomit, to find Tiran Kandros seated on a couch a few feet away. Had he shown up at some point last night? He didn’t seem hungover like she was. What the hell had happened?

“I…” She looked down at the dried vomit on her shirt. She could only imagine how terrible the rest of her looked:  _ exactly _ how she hoped to look in front of Tiran, obviously. “What happened last night?”

Tiran laughed. “I figured you wouldn’t remember. Peebee attacked someone at the Vortex and then you apparently jumped in on the fight. They called Nexus security; one of my men was going to take care of it, but when I heard the Pathfinder was involved I decided to check it out myself.”

“Oh God,” Ryder groaned.

“Peebee ran off before I could deal with her; I figured some water and a good night’s sleep would be better for you than a night in a cell in operations, so I brought you here. You  _ snore _ remarkably loudly for such a small person.”

“ _ Oh God _ ,” She repeated.

“You also begged me to get naked,” at this, his mandibles flicked into a grin. “If you weren’t drunk, I might have obliged.”

She buried her face in her hands and let out another exclamation of distress. Tiran laughed.

“I’m glad you find my suffering funny,” she hissed.

“Come on, Sara, we’ve all had nights like that. Good thing you’re friends with the head of Nexus security; if Tann had his way, you’d be facing some serious reprimands right now. I made sure he didn’t hear about this.”

“I owe you, big time.”

“I don’t do favors for my friends expecting something in return,” he shrugged. “But if you want to repay me, I can think of a few ways...once you’re not...covered in your own sick.” He flicked his mandibles. “Not  _ really _ a turn on.”

“You want to, uh…” Her head was pounding too hard and she was too embarrassed to be having this conversation. “You actually want to…”

“Did you not have a good time the other day?” He cocked his head. “I had thought…”

She shook her head quickly, but that only made her more nauseous. Holding back an unpleasant belch (or worse) she paused for a moment before she spoke again. “No it’s not that. I had a great time! It’s just, uh...I’m kind of a mess.” She gestured to herself. “I figured it was a one-time thing.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be.”

“Hey, question, can we come back to this conversation when I’m not about to vomit and covered in my own puke?”

“A raincheck.” Tiran nodded. “Addison taught me that phrase.”

“Yeah, a raincheck.” Ryder agreed.

_Of course_ the thought of sleeping with Tiran again had been on her mind, _of course_ she was up for it, but it had also been the very reason she’d drunk herself into a stupor the night before: too complicated. Apparently she was too much of a giant baby to handle a friends with benefits situation, because her _stupid_ , _emotional_ _brain_ wanted more. What did Tiran want? They were both too busy for more, and it was foolish to think he needed or wanted that emotional aspect of a relationship anyway.

It had been ‘fun’. That was all.

With some awkward thank yous on her part, she excused herself from Kandros’ apartment, so overcome with embarrassment that she could barely look him in the eye. She’d gone out drinking to avoid him and wound up sleeping in his bed, because of course she had.

She spent nearly an hour soaking in the tub in her room on the Tempest before scrubbing herself of all remnants of the previous night, then she spent another three hours napping to recover from her hangover before eating her weight in carbs in the kitchen. Mercifully, most of the crew were gone, enjoying their shore leave, though she did run into Lexi, who poked and prodded and chastised her for drinking too much.

“You’re not a krogan, Ryder, though the amount of alcohol you drank suggests you think you are!”

Gil, too, had been aboard, and Ryder didn’t escape some good natured ribbing about how much of a lightweight she was. A query about how Peebee was faring after their night out ended with a shrug and a sly grin; he knew where she was, but he wasn’t divulging more than that.

“She’s still alive, anyway.”

“I’ll take still alive, hopefully she’ll still turn up when we leave port.”

The rest of the day was spent steadfastly avoiding Tiran. She would find him and talk to him when she was completely recovered from her hangover; she didn’t want to risk potentially throwing up on him at any point, and she was still so embarrassed about his unexpected rescue and her own feelings for him that she didn’t want to even entertain the thought of another  _ amazing _ romp with him.

It couldn’t stop her thinking about it, though. Having sex with him on the tram hadn’t alleviated her problem at all, it had only made her want  _ more; _ the fact that he also wanted more made the prospect of sleeping with him again tempting enough to ignore what it might do to her fragile heart. The Ryder family had never been one for ardent displays of affection, and she had never been one to deal well with emotional attachment. 

Oh well, why tip-toe through the shallow-end of the pool when she could dive into the deep end? So what if she drowned in the process? The sex was worth it, after all.

So, the following day, when her head wasn’t aching, the smell of lingering vomit had been scrubbed from every inch of her, and her hair wasn’t standing on end (did turians understand or care about messy hair? Either way, it made her self conscious) she decided to seek out Tiran and discuss his ‘repayment plan’.

She found him, as she always did, manning the security station in operations. He was in the middle of a conversation with Lieutenant Sajax, who nodded in acknowledgment of Ryder’s presence when she arrived. Tiran turned and flicked his mandibles into a smile at the sight of her, which sent her stomach into somersaults.

_ Come on, Sara, what are you? Twelve? Butterflies? Really? _

Scott would have made  _ so much _ fun of her if he’d known about any of this. She resolved to tell him about it once everything was said and done.

“Sara,” Tiran greeted her. “You look like you’ve recovered from yesterday.”

She felt warmth creep into her cheeks. “Look, about that...I’m really sorry. It’s been a long time since I drank and Peebee kept egging me on and I just got carried away.” He opened his mouth to say something, but she held a hand up to stop him. “I  _ know _ you were just looking out for a friend, but you’re the head of Nexus Security; I shouldn’t be wasting your time with stupid drunken antics.”

He laughed, his eyes crinkling with his smile. “You’re never wasting my time, Sara. Even when you’re puking on my shoes.”

“Oh God, I didn’t!”

He nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid so. Don’t worry, I made one of the low-ranking APEX officers clean them. Punishment for not following orders last week.” He laughed again and her cheeks grew so warm she thought she might spontaneously combust.

“I’m  _ so _ sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re okay now, that’s what matters.”

For a moment, they stood in front of each other in silence. Lieutenant Sajax had stepped away to give them a bit of privacy. Had Tiran mentioned anything to her? No, of course he hadn’t, but maybe she knew anyway. Ryder had never been good at acting inconspicuous, after all.

“So, did you...need me for something?” Tiran asked.

“Oh, uh, well...I came to talk to you about that...repayment.” Why did she feel like such a childish idiot discussing it? Like his tongue hadn’t been between her legs only a few days prior.

“ _ Oh _ .” An interested flick of his mandibles. “I had some ideas. I...may have gotten my hands on the security footage from the tram the other day. Maybe you could come by my apartment later and we could... _ investigate it _ .”

“Wait, you have footage of us…?” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

“Well, I had to wipe it from the database so it wouldn’t get in the wrong hands. The Nexus doesn’t need another scandal and not everyone around here is open minded. Besides, Tann and Addison would complain about favoritism if they knew about us.”

_ About us _ .

_ Us. Us. Us. _

_ Don’t read it into Sara, Jesus. _

“I thought it would be a shame to delete it without taking a look first. The only copy is sitting on an OSD in my dresser.”

He wanted her to come to his apartment to watch a video of the two of them having sex...in preparation for more sex.

She didn’t love the idea of watching herself from a likely horrible angle, but she did love the idea of getting naked with Tiran again.

“Okay, uh, what time should I show up?”

“I’m off duty after the seventeenth hour. I’ll meet you then.”

That was six hours away. How was she supposed to last six hours with the knowledge of what awaited her at the end of it?

It would be the longest six hours of her life.

* * *

When the time finally came to meet Tiran at his apartment, it seemed that the entire Nexus suddenly needed something from Ryder. Some of the six hours she’d had to kill had been spent on the Tempest, and when she was ready to leave, Suvi and Kallo had pulled her into an argument about plant life on Havarl, somehow. Despite her repeated protests that she didn’t care, every time she tried to exit the ship, one of them would say,

“No wait, you have to settle this Ryder!”

She didn’t end up settling it, but instead waited until they were too deep into their own back and forth to remember she was there, at which point she slipped off the ship only to run headlong into Tann upon exiting the docks.

“Pathfinder, I feel like you’ve been avoiding me since you arrived. I’ve sent repeated messages. Did you get them or not? I have several matters to discuss with you, and furthermore Director Addison thinks that-”

“Er, Tann, could it wait until tomorrow? I sort of have important plans.”

“With whom? All of your meetings with diplomats should be scheduled through my office, Pathfinder, and I have no meetings listed for you on my omni-tool. If you scheduled something then I need to know about it, I really think-”

“It’s not a diplomatic meeting, uh, it’s kind of like...a date? I can’t reschedule, so if you could just-”

Tann scoffed. “A date!? You hardly have time for such frivolities, Pathfinder. Need I remind you-”

“Oh look, it’s Superintendent Kesh! And she looks  _ pissed _ .” Ryder pointed in the direction of hydroponics.

“What? Where? Don’t let her see me!”

Tann spun around to look for her, buying Ryder the time she needed to take off into the crowd. She could vaguely hear Tann shouting after her as she ran, but she didn’t hesitate a glance back to see if he gave chase, or how close he might be.

It felt like nothing in the entire universe was more important than the possibility of seeing Tiran Kandros naked again.

Across the commons, she nearly found herself held up once again when Vetra noticed her. She waved and yelled,

“Where are you running in such a hurry, Ryder?”

“Sex, Vetra,  _ sex _ . Keep Tann off my back.”

She heard Vetra’s hearty laugh in reply. “No problem! Good luck!”

Finally, after what felt like hours on top of the six she had already waited, but which was surely only a few minutes, she skidded to a halt in front of Tiran’s apartment. The long run from the docks to his unit wasn’t the only cause of her racing heartbeat as she knocked on the door.

He appeared only a moment after she knocked, wearing more casual attire than she had ever seen him in: the type of clothing Vetra wore around the Tempest during long journeys between the Nexus and colony worlds. It was odd to see him out of his armor (though she had certainly seen plenty of him a few days prior).

“Tiran. Hi.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Can I come in? Tann was after me and-”

“Say no more.” He stepped back, allowing her space to enter before closing and locking the door.

On the vid screen in front of his couch, a paused image of the two of them on the tram was readied. In the picture, they were still fully clothed, and she recognized the moment as right before they kissed for the first time. Her face flushed at the thought of it.

“I’ve never actually seen myself doing this, you know?” He laughed, and she thought she detected a hint of nervousness in his subvocals. Was he has anxious as she was? But why?  _ He _ was attractive, successful, and held an esteemed position on the Nexus.

_ Uh, hello, Sara, you’re the  _ Pathfinder. _ The  _ only _ Pathfinder to establish colony outposts. _

Maybe she was too hard on herself.

“One time I filmed myself having sex with my college boyfriend,” she blurted, immediately wishing she hadn’t said anything. Now that she had started the story, she found she couldn’t control the word vomit that came tumbling from her mouth. “We set up the camera at the end of the bed...it was a horrible angle. Nobody should see themselves from that vantage point. His butt was…” She shuddered at the memory. “Wow! Not setting the right mood, huh?”

Tiran snorted. “Maybe we should just sit down and watch?”

“Good idea.”

They took a seat on his couch, leaving a bit of space (maybe too much?) between each other as they sat. After a few taps on his omni-tool, the video began to play. The angle on this video was at least better: from above, Ryder thought she didn’t look half bad. She was surprised when she heard herself talking, and tried to ignore how much she  _ hated _ hearing her own voice.

“The security cams pick up audio too?” She asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

As the video progressed, she found herself inching closer to Tiran, leaning forward as they kissed on screen, removed each other’s clothes, mouths latching to necks and shoulders. Her heart pounded in her ears at the memory of his touch, of his warm lips against her skin, of…

His head dipped between her legs in the video and she found herself gasping in time with the audio. Tiran’s hand suddenly brushed against her thigh, and she tore her gaze away from the screen to meet his, lusty gasps sounding from the screen.

“Tiran, I…”

“You talk a lot,” he noted, gently brushing her cheek with a talon.

“Sorry, I’m just-”

He shook his head. “It’s cute.”

He brought his mouth against hers, his tongue quickly moving to meet hers as she gripped his neck and leaned into the kiss greedily. In the background, the moaning and grunting of the video mingled with their own heavy breaths.

Ignoring the video entirely then, she let him pull her onto his lap, straddling his groin and grinding her bottom against it as her nails raked down the plating on the back of his neck. A rough growl issued from his subvocals, his hands moving to grip her ass so tightly she was sure his talons would puncture the fabric of her pants.

As they kissed and writhed against each other, barely breaking away for quick, gasping breaths, it occured to Ryder that she didn’t actually know if grinding against a turian would do much in terms of arousal. Everything was internal until it...wasn’t. Would bumping her ass against his sheath with a layer of fabric between them really do anything?

She decided she was too impatient to find out, instead sliding off of him quickly and landing somewhat clumsily on the floor between his legs. He leaned forward, confusion and concern mingling in his expression.

“Are you all right, Sara?”

“Fine, sorry.” She sat up on her knees and leaned forward, resting her elbows on his thighs. “Almost hit my head on your table.”

Tiran chuckled. “What maneuver were you going for there?”

Again, despite the fact that he had been  _ inside of her _ a few days earlier - and despite the fact that the very event in question was playing on a screen behind her - she felt her cheeks flush at the suggestion of what she had been planning to do.

“You said you’ve been with humans before, right?” She asked.

“A few. Why?” His mandibles twitched.

“Have any of them ever, uh...you know, uh, used their mouths to, uh…”

_ God, Sara, you’re a full-grown adult, just say it. _

“Oh.  _ Oh. _ ” Tiran nodded. “No, I’ve seen vids of that, but I haven’t had the pleasure of…”

She reached her hands up to the button on his pants. “Maybe I could?”

His ‘yes’ was resounding and emphatic, moving his hands to help her pull the pants down and off his legs. She nearly hit her head again yanking the pants from the ends of his feet and tossing them aside, only avoiding a concussion when he reached out to grasp her arm and pulled her back toward him.

Why was she so fucking clumsy? And how the hell had she survived this long?

_ Deep breaths. Be cool, Sara, be cool. _

She moved back between his legs, his skin bared to her now. He wasn’t out of his sheath yet because why would he be? A little tongue action and some light petting? Of course that hadn’t been enough for him.

Mustering up the confidence she’d found when she’d propositioned him on the tram, she brought her lips against the soft skin surrounding his sheath and kissed her way around it, allowing her tongue to dart out and taste him as she moved. The sound of his breath, ragged and husky, filled her with more courage.

She didn’t have a  _ ton _ of experience using her mouth on a turian, but she’d been with women before, so she decided to take a similar approach. Moving her mouth to the center of his sheath, she licked up the length of his slit, tasting the warm fluid that coated his hidden member. When she reached the top of the sheath, she pressed her lips together to form suction while her tongue moved in circles at the edge of his slit.

His hips bucked beneath her and he let out an unbidden moan as his slick, throbbing cock slid slowly and smoothly out of its sheath. It was an easy transition to wrap her lips around the head of his cock, sliding her tongue slowly and purposeful along the ridges on the underside of it.

“ _ Sara… _ ” Tiran’s fingers tangled into her hair as he gripped the back of her head.

She took him slowly into her mouth, as deep as she could manage; he was too big at the base to take him fully, so she used her hands to grip him at the base, a thumb reaching down to massage the thick knot just above the opening to his sheath. Her head bobbed slowly up and down, savoring the new taste of him: different than any human cock she’d ever put in her mouth;  _ better. _

His grip on her hair tightened as she moved, heady moans escaping his throat in dual tones. But she didn’t want the evening to end so quickly, and she knew if she didn’t stop soon, it would be a long wait before things could pick up again. She pulled her mouth and hands away from him all at once, her fingers sticky from the fluid coating his cock.

Eyelids fluttering, he flicked his mandibles at her. “Why’d you stop?”

“Didn’t want you having  _ all _ the fun.” She was pleased at how dazed he look after her ministrations.

“Take your clothes off.” 

The way his deep voice issued the order, it was clear it was a command and not a suggestion. She moved to her feet and attempted to seductively remove her top, shaking her hips this way and that as she did, but the moment was ruined somewhat when her head got stuck in the neck hole and she spent several seconds trying to yank it off before Tiran offered a helping hand.

Abandoning any attempts at another sexy dance, Ryder stripped off the rest of her clothes until she stood naked in front of Tiran, unable to tear her eyes away from the throbbing blue cock between his legs, remembering how it felt inside of her (the tape on the vid screen had long since ended).

“Come here,” Tiran beckoned her forward, pulling her onto his lap. 

She felt the heat of his erection against her ass as she sat, but when he reached around, talons tiptoeing across the soft skin of her bottom, it wasn’t to guide his cock inside of her; instead, a single digit slid tentatively between her folds, dipping around her opening and coming to circle the tender bundle of nerves above it.

Her breath hitched and she grasped his shoulder, burying her face against his neck.

_ “Tiran. _ ”

“Can I tell you something, Sara?” He purred in her ear as his finger slid inside of her, as deep as he could reach, curling around to brush against the walls inside until he found a spot that beckoned forth a loud, uncontrollable moan from the depths of her throat.

She could barely muster a response, instead whimpering as she moaned again; the sheer pleasure of his finger stroking inside of her was almost too much to bear.

“I’ve wanted to fuck you for ages. When you came on to me in the tram…” She ground her ass backward against his erection and his breath caught in his throat; he responded by thrusting his finger inside of her until his knuckle brushed her clit.

Their mouths came together, tongues tangling, breaths shaky and desperate. Overcome by the moment, he withdrew his hand from between her legs, gripped her hip with one hand, and guided himself inside of her until she was flush against his pelvis. Then both of his hands were at her waist, talons digging into her flesh as he guided her back and forth, up and down while his hips moved in small, purposeful thrusts. She could feel every ridge of his cock with each snap of his hips, her clit gliding against the soft edge of his sheath.

“Tiran... _ Tiran.” _ Her fingers tip-toed up his neck to massage the soft skin beneath his fringe. In response, he nuzzled into her neck and let out a deep, dual-toned moan.

“ _ Sara. _ ”

Oh  _ fuck _ . This wasn’t just sex, as  _ amazing _ as he felt inside of her, as much as she wanted the moment to last forever; there was a very tangible emotional element in the room. Was it just her? Did he feel it too? They  _ were _ friends, weren’t they?

Love was too strong a word, but it was certainly something like it. Her heart swelled as he lifted his head and pressed his forehead against hers, her lips brushing tenderly against his warm mouth plates. For a moment, she forgot all of her responsibilities, the endless list of fires to put out all across the cluster: for a moment, it was just the two of them.

It was more than just sex. He  _ meant something _ to her. She would miss him when she left; and the thought of him, moving on to find comfort with someone else while she was away, was almost too much to bear.

She came with a burst of color and emotion, her nails digging into his shoulders, a series of gasps and moans issuing from her mouth, chief among them his name, then she fell still against him. He gripped her bottom and with a few, final clumsy thrusts, spilled himself inside of her, subvocals buzzing as her name left his lips.

They lay gasping against each other for hours or mere minutes; she couldn’t say. His talons traced shapes up and down her back, so surprisingly tender for how sharp they were. The thought of leaving was unfathomable. She simply couldn’t will herself to move away from the warmth of his body, so instead, she rested her head against his shoulder and settled fully against him.

“Tiran, I have to admit something too,” she somehow managed to say.

“Hm?”

She brushed her fingers slowly along the gaps in his chest plating, savoring the rumble of his subvocals as she did so.

“I don’t want something casual with you. You’re my friend, I...it’s selfish of me, but I want more.”

The silence that followed hardly reassured her. 

After several seconds of contemplation, Tiran spoke. “Why is that selfish?”

“We’re both so busy. It’s not fair to you to say I want more. I...I’m always away, and when I’m here I barely have time to catch my breath between meetings with the other directors and diplomats. You’re  _ always _ working. I couldn’t expect you to give up the opportunity for something less...messy. I-”

His fingers gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry, Sara, but you don’t get to decide what’s inconvenient or unfair to me. If it’s selfish of you to ask me for more, then is it selfish of me to want it?”

Her heart swelled again. “...Do you? Want more, I mean?”

“You’re my friend. And I’m a little embarrassed to admit how long I’ve thought about the possibility. You’re not the only one who’s wanted it; I’ve had those same thoughts. Isn’t it unfair of me to ask her? She’s always away, she’s probably got someone taking care of her needs on every colony. It would be  _ hard _ to make it work. And until this week, I wasn’t sure if you were even interested.”

“Well, I obviously am.” 

Considering he was still inside of her.

“So if we both want it, and we both know it might take some work, why not? The worst thing that can happen is that it’s too hard with our busy schedules, but I don’t think that’s the case. We both know what it’s like to have so much expected of us; it should only bring us closer together, don’t you think?” He cocked his head.

“I do want it,” She nodded, and for a moment, she thought she might cry. She had hardly expected such an emotional conversation when she’d first sought him out at the beginning of her shore leave. “I want this. I want  _ you _ .”

“I want you too.”

He kissed her: soft and gentle, different from the urgent kisses they had shared before.

“So, where do we start with this exactly?” She asked, eyelids fluttering at the lingering touch of his lips.

“Well, I think first we start by spending the rest of your shore leave in my apartment.”

She buried her face against his neck and giggled. “I like your thinking,  _ director. _ ”

And just like that, she had checked off another important event on a checklist she’d never anticipated or asked for: find love amidst the chaos of Andromeda. And with a turian, no less.

Scott was going to  _ flip _ when she told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did mean to write and post the second half of this fic much sooner, but life, and other fics, and deciding to participate in the mass effect big bang this year kind of all got in the way. But I did finally write it, and here it is! I hope you enjoyed it. I do really like Tiran and Sara together and I hope if we every get a sequel (heavy sigh) that Kandros might be romanceable. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for all the lovely comments on the first chapter and thanks for reading!!


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